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You are going to die drowning after drinking too much/doing too many drugs. Dying like all of the greatest rockers – because you live like one. You like to party and experiment with perception. Rock on hippie.

As a socially smart person, you are best with others in real-life situations. This type of intelligence is closely linked to being ‘street smart.’ Theories and such are not much concern: the things that matter tend to be those which you can see, feel, touch – what you can really experience. This knowledge comes to you both out of a natural knowledge, as well as learning from the situations you find yourself in.

Your ideals are mostly spiritual, but in an individualistic way. While spirituality is very important in your life, organized religion itself may not be for you. It is best for you to seek these things on your own terms.

Know-it-alls are your number one pet peeve. They always know everything, and always take pleasure in making you feel stupid. And they always, always make a point of saying something when you screw up something.

You may not have practiced in front of the mirror for hours but your still a good dancer. You don’t really care about what you look like, you’d rather just have fun. Some of your main moves come from movies and past dance crazes. Everyone loves watching your antics on the dance floor.

Last night we watched another Nooma video. Rob Bell was talking about his son and how he wanted this toy that wouldn’t have been a good idea. Rob was going to take him to a store to get a kickball but all this little boy could see was this other toy that he thought would be better. He didn’t have the ability to see things from his dad’s perspective.

Rob then talked about how we do the same thing with God. We see something that we want. Maybe someone else has it and it looks cool. Or maybe we think that that’s the thing that will make us happy. Make us complete. And so we pray to God for it. (I’ll save my rant on treating God like Santa for a different blog. 🙂 ) Then we wait, often times tapping our foot impatiently with our arms crossed. Then when it either seems like God isn’t answering or that He has said “no”, we then say “But I thought You loved me! I just need this *one* thing! Then I’ll be happy!”

Do we ever think about what maybe God is really saying? That maybe He has a good reason to say “wait” or even “no”? Because just like Rob could see the dangers/annoyances of the other toy, God can see things that we can’t. He can see the danger or potential for irritation. In the area of waiting on the person we’re going to marry, He can see areas where one or both of you may need to grow before you can come together. Or in the area of sex outside of marriage. It sounds fun but God sees the danger and the fact that someone will get hurt. Even things like the promotion you wanted or the vacation you didn’t get to take.

In the words of Pink, “I’m a hazard to myself. Don’t let me get me. I’m my own worst enemy.” How often do we get in our own way? How often are we so focused on this one thing that we think God is holding out on us? How often do we miss the potential for blessing, far greater blessing then what we have in mind for ourselves?

What if that person that you think you should be married to/dating would be ok but there’s someone better for you that you can’t see? What if that job would pay the bills but there’s a better job that you would enjoy more? Don’t become so blinded by what you think you need that you miss out on the blessings that God has in store for you. And if God is obviously saying “no”, don’t decide to go off down the road by yourself. You will only bring harm to yourself and anyone you drag down that road with you. Be open to what God is telling you. Maybe behind His back He’s holding the kickball that will be better than what you thought you wanted.

Jesus take the wheelTake it from my handsCause I can’t do this on my ownI’m letting goSo give me one more chanceTo save me from this road I’m onJesus take the wheel

Not much annoys me. I’m fairly laid back about stuff, simply because I see no point in getting bent out of shape over things you can’t change. This is one area that I am still trying to work on though.

I’m sure most of you girls have been in this scenario. A guy friend of yours starts dating a girl (or even just takes interest in a girl) whom you find…….questionable. He then asks you what you think of her/their relationship. (Let me say right now that if you don’t want my honest opinion about something like that, then don’t ask for it. Because I’ll tell you exactly what I think and it might not be what you want to hear. I think it, I say it, remember? 🙂 ) After you give your honest opinion, which isn’t so favorable, he then pronounces you to be……

……jealous.

That drives me up a wall. It brings to mind a few things. A: he knows what you’re saying is true and since he doesn’t have any better defense, he decides (to ease his conscience) that you must be jealous. B: he is one of those guys that thinks every girl must like him and so you must be jealous that he isn’t into you. Or C: he assumes that all girls are petty and get jealous even if they don’t like the guy. They just don’t want him paying attention to any girl other than them.

For guys in the first category: stop justifying yourself! If you know your girl friend is right, listen to her. That other girl may be hot/fun/whatever. But just like you guys have a sense about other guys and can weed out the good from the bad, us ladies have that same capacity with other girls.

For guys in the second category: As if! Contrary to what you may believe, you are *not* God’s gift to women. And even if she does like you, that doesn’t mean that she’s doing it out of jealousy. She may still see attributes in this girl that worry her and she doesn’t want to see you dragged down.

For guys in the last category: yes, a lot of girls are like that. A lot of girls will bad mouth other girls just to make themselves look better. A lot of girls can’t stand to have you focused on any girl but them. A lot of *girls* do this. Women do not. Hopefully you are discerning enough to know the difference between girls and women. (And age has nothing to do with it!)

So please don’t tell your girl friends that they’re just jealous. It may be that she is. But you will only serve to piss her off if she’s really just trying to give you her honest opinion. I know that no one wants to listen to bad things about the person they like but sometimes other people can see stuff that you can’t. At least give consideration to what they have to say. Without the rose-colored glasses. 😉

* This blog is not directed at anyone. A friend’s comment made me think of it but in no way is it directed at that friend.

So today I got on my MySpace account, not really expecting much. I saw that someone named Renee wanted to friend me. As I always do, I went to check out her site first to make sure she wasn’t some wacko with pictures of naked women covered in blood. (Yeah, had one of those try to friend me once. Needless to say, they were denied!) The first thing I see is:

I’m the author of ‘Stumbling Toward Faith’.

No freakin way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That totally made my day though. I was reading that book around the time I was realizing what had been done to me in high school and it expressed all of the pain and anger I was feeling. In the words of Oswald Chambers “The author who benefits you most is not the one who tells you something you did not know before, but the one who gives expression to the truth that has been dumbly struggling in you for utterance.” That is what her book did for me. It gave utterance to the truth that was thrashing around inside of me, looking for a way to be heard. I was angry, scared and in pain and I didn’t know how to yell about it to God.

So Renee, in case you stumble (no pun intended) across this blog, thank you.